Women's Rights Employment Law Blog

One of the harshest homophobes in position of power, James E. West is no more.

As a former Mayor and a Senate Majority leader in Washington Legislature, the conservative Republican leader had etched out some nightmares for America. West was a fervent supporter of anti-gay bills that proposed to ban gays and lesbians from working in schools and day cares. He even proposed to make a law that would ban all sexual activity among persons under the age of 18.

As a Roy Cohn of modern times, most ironically West was recalled from his office over an internet gay sex scandal last year. Using the chat ID “Right-BiGuy”, he used to offer internships to young (high school graduating) gay men.

Not just his homophobic reactions to suppress freedom for LGBT communities, but also his own admission of private online relationships with young gay men worked against his reputation as a public official while he was living. After his death, one would have expected continuance of scathing criticisms of his legacy. But we find many interesting tributes paid to him in his death, including but not limited to the following:

Chris Vance, a political consultant and former Republican Party chairman, said, “Jim West was a great and well-respected member of the Legislature for 20 years.”

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, a Spokane Democrat said, “He was a powerful political force here and in the state for decades.”

Dino Rossi, a former Republican Senate budget chairman, said West was a gifted politician who gave his colleagues room to get their jobs done. “He didn't micromanage things. When I was trying to balance the deficit, he showed up in my office, I think, once and that was because I asked him to come over.”

Sen. Margarita Prentice, a Democrat from Renton, quoted West as a good friend. “I just think he was one of the finest political minds. You had to be tough in order to get past him,” she said.

West’s successor in Spokane, Mayor Dennis Hession said “Jim West did some wonderful things for the city of Spokane and the state and that's how he should be remembered.”

Although there is nothing wrong in paying glowing tributes even to man who erred grievously in life, what rather alarming here is the comfort level politicians across party lines have shared while praising one of the most powerful homophobic in the United States.

Equally insightful would be to know why the country turned hostile towards West not so much when he was intolerant towards LGBT community, as when later on, he admitted his own alternative sexual orientation. Astrid Rachelle Fiano, Esq. says such hypocrisy would not exist in the first place, only if “people minded their own business, didn't equate sexual preference with morality; and/or the government enacted stronger protections to make homophobia as socially unacceptable as blatant racism.”